Both of these phrases speak to the heart of a national learning program for Latino preschoolers that will be launched next year in San Joaquin County by Head Start.

"With this program, our at-risk numbers should decrease," said Cecelia Warren, one of two Stockton-based Head Start specialists trained in the Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors program. "With it, more families will have the resources to advocate for their children."

The program has two goals: better kindergarten readiness for Latino children and greater empowerment for their parents.

There are few places in California where it is more needed. According to Children Now, an advocacy group based in the East Bay:

» San Joaquin County has almost 55,000 children younger than 5, and more than 23,000 of them are Latino.

» While half of all 3- and 4-year-old white children are in preschool, only 22 percent of Latino children are enrolled (black and Asian toddlers also lag behind).

» The lack of early preparedness becomes evident in high school. Fewer than one in five Latino children meets college requirements by his or her senior year.

» More than 16 percent of the county's population lives in poverty, and the rate is even higher among Latinos.

» San Joaquin County ranks 49 out of California's 58 counties in the percentage of all children, ages 3 and 4, enrolled in preschool.

Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors is designed to change that. And it begins with engaged parents.

"In the Latino culture, parents don't know they can question teachers," said Edwardo Cortez, the other Head Start specialist trained in the new program. "We want to empower them to go further, to ask more and invite them to do their own research."

Cortez and Warren were at a national Head Start conference in Nashville, Tenn., where they learned how to implement Abrienda Puertas/Opening Doors. They will, in turn, train local parents and professionals.

"Stockton is unique," said Tony Colón, Head Start's director of program operations in the county. "It is Olympian in terms of poverty. We need the tools to meet that challenge. Family engagement in a child's life is one way."

Cortez, who has worked with Head Start for 16 years, believes the time is right.

"In the last two years, Latino families have become more interested in leadership roles," he said. "And in advocacy for themselves."

The curriculum, developed in Spanish and English, started in 2003 with a pilot program at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. It became available nationally in 2007.